Of cheap telecos and flashy phones

I have heard of horrific tales of the US mobile users. I have heard how you are not allowed the handset you actually paid for is not yours. How, the users have to go with a particular service provider if you have got your heart on a particular model. How even if you switch its illegal to install a software on your cellphone which your telecom operator does not like and how you have to jail-break your cellphone if you want to do as little as take it abroad and use it with a local number.

Sounds scary ? Well, welcome the trend to India. iPhone as most of us know would only work with Vodaphone and later Airtel. So if you want to change your phone, well change your number (since there is lack of number interoperability. As yet). And now, its the turn of HTC touch diamond to go "exclusive" with Airtel. What is cruelly ironic is that HTC hadn't cut a deal with any of the American providers to market touch Diamond.

But there is more to it than meets the eye. Consumers in the US get these cellphones at throw away prices. The telecos subsidizes these cellphones heavily in exchange of a lock-in period. However, our very own Indian telecos have flatly refused to subsidize these cellphone even by a penny citing difficulty in implementation the clauses of the contract.

So, now you would have to pay the retail prices for these cellphones AND would have to sign a lock-in contract. So now you would have to pay 15 - 17k for an iPhone or about 27K for an HTC touch diamond and HAVE TO go with Airtel or Vodaphone if you want to use while our American counterpart pay as little as $199 for an iPhone and $99 for a HTC touch diamond with same clauses. Talk about double whammy.

As far as I am concerned, I think it is outright wrong for a service provider to meddle with the handset business. If the user is paying for the cellphone, he has an absolute right to decide how to use it including with which telecom operator to chose. But the telecos are becoming more and more greedy everyday and not satisfied as serving as a pipe. They not only want that the user uses their service but also how it uses it. It is outright insane, in tune with saying that I would have to subscribe to a particular ISP if I want to use a Sony Viao laptop or a Macbook Pro. It is absolutely absurd. And they are not willing to pay anything for this control. Talk about being cheap.

I wish this trend would not be successful in India, but with the hype that iPhone has created, I highly doubt it.